Pro-Trump vote reveals “great economic anxiety,” Legault believes
Prime Minister François Legault
Share November 5, 2020 5:52 p.m. Updated at 6:03 p.m. Share The pro-Trump vote reveals “great economic anxiety”, believes Legault
Olivier Bossé Le Soleil The pro-Trump vote reveals “great economic anxiety” which can also apply to Quebec, believes François Legault.
Thursday afternoon, during his traditional press briefing, the Premier of Quebec shared his thoughts on the results of the American elections.
“It's not good for anyone that there are tensions in a society that is almost equally divided in two. What I want is for those tensions to subside. Because it could indeed have negative impacts, including here, ”said Mr. Legault.
If the day before he did not want to advance on the subject and even less on the identity of the candidate he wanted to win, the Quebec premier this time himself offered to analyze the known results. until then, from which “we can still learn lessons”, he said.
“It was found that many people were surprised to see the small gap between the votes for Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. People have been surprised at the height of Mr. Trump's vote. Obviously, we all have questions, he said in his opening speech.
“What does that reveal?” I think that shows, among other things – I mean among others – great economic anxiety. There are many citizens who have questions about their jobs, including paid jobs. Remember that everywhere in North America, jobs in the manufacturing sector pay much more than the average job. Then, in Mr. Trump's speech, he actually spoke a lot first of all about his trade with China to repatriate part of the manufacturing sector to the United States. “
“Then I think there are a lot of people who either still have a job and are worried about losing it or who have lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector. And I think this is a great concern, then I think we can apply the same thing here, in Quebec, ”explained Premier Legault.
“Fine speeches” of autonomy
The former businessman and accountant by profession then made a plea to retain and even strengthen economic ties with our neighbors to the south, regardless of who will inhabit the White House for the next four years.
“The United States will always remain a very, very important, crucial partner for Quebec,” insists Mr. Legault. Quebec currently, when we look at all of its international trade, has a deficit of about $ 10 billion per year with the rest of the world. When we look at the United States, there is a surplus of $ 20 billion. This means that, if Quebec did not have trade with the United States, we would be talking about a trade deficit of $ 30 billion with the rest of the world. We can see the importance of this $ 20 billion surplus.
“Obviously, we cannot forget, on one side or the other, as much on the side of Mr. Biden as of Mr. Trump, all this American protectionist discourse, he continued. This should lead us and the federal government to make a lot of efforts to bring together the new government or, if it is the same, then also with the States, with the governors. ”
He speaks of the geographic proximity to the New England states, but also of looking further to states experiencing strong economic growth, such as Texas and California.
“We are thinking about ways to work better with these states. The United States will always be our great partner. Even though we can make fine speeches about the fact that we would like to be less dependent on the United States, because we already have 70% of our exports to the United States. But the fact remains that, if only because of the proximity of the two countries, there will always be work to be done to keep this trade surplus. There are also efforts to be made politically, then we will do it, ”promises Mr. Legault.
